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A86062 A funeral sermon preached at Deptford June 3. 1688 Upon the occasion of the death of Mrs. Elizabeth Kilbury, late wife of Mr. John Kilbury. By Henry Godman, minister of the gospel. With allowance. Godman, Henry, 1629 or 30-1702. 1688 (1688) Wing G940A; ESTC R229589 20,575 42

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greater cause to weep and howl even in the fulness of their sufficiency than they have to rejoyce and be glad It 's said of Jehoshaphat that he had Silver and Gold in abundance Riches and Honour in abundance 2 Chron. 17. 5 6. but his heart was lift up to God in the ways of God He valued not himself by his Riches and Honour but by his relation to God and interest in him without whom all other things had been but low-priz'd Commodities and of very little account with him The wicked man's Riches Honours and good things are his All for what hath he more God pays them their Portion in the World's Coin and in a little while will say unto them You have received your Consolation And then they will wish that they had begg'd their Bread with Lazarus on Earth rather than their Water with Dives in Hell. Oh! pity these miserable Souls they have nothing within them or without them that can do them any good They have nothing but Sin within them and that will damn them they have nothing but the World without them and that cannot save them no it will prove a heavy Mill-stone about their necks which will sink them down deeper into the Gulf of Eternal Woe and Misery I now pass on to the next which is the 26th verse My flesh and my heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever Where you have the Psalmists Complaint And secondly the Psalmists Comfort In the former part of the verse you find him going forth weeping My flesh and my heart faileth but because he had within him precious seed For light is sown for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart This seed is already sown in their Hearts and Souls Therefore in the latter part of the verse we find him returning again rejoycing with his Sheaves in his bosom But God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever We will first consider his Complaint My flesh and my heart faileth 〈◊〉 will fail my flesh will fail my heart will fail in a little time He speaks in the present tense to notifie the certainty of the failure Such forms of speech are frequently used in Scripture Babylon is fallen is fallen i. e. Babylon shallas surely fall as if it were fallen already The Scripture speaks often of things that will be done as if they were at present done Rom. 8. Whom he justified them he glorified that is they shall as certainly be glorified as if they were already in the Kingdom of Glory Thus here My flesh and my heart faileth that is it 's sure and certain that it will be so My flesh my heart we are not to understand it exclusivè as if it were only appropriate to himself and were not the case of others as we●l as his no but you are to understand it inclusivè as meant of all that dwell in these fleshly Tabernacles and Houses of Clay This is a common case there is no exemption from this general Calamity and Affliction The Doctrine from hence which I shall but briefly insist on is this Doct. That the flesh and the heart of every man will certainly fail Though at present this flesh of ours may flourish as the Grass and may be in its beauty as the Flower in the field yet as the Grass soon withereth and the Flower soon fadeth so will it be with our flesh Though at present these hearts of ours may be sound and strong though they are every moment moving and beating in our bosoms always opening or shutting Still busie either in a way of contraction or dilatation but e're long all this work will fail this motion will cease the heart will faint and succumb and the strings of it will be broken in pieces Mans slesh and heart will surely fail I shall in a few words animadvert 1. Vpon the failing of mans Flesh 2. On the failing of mans Heart And then 3. Shew whence this failing proceeds and doth arise And 4. Make some brief Application 1. Mans Flesh that will fail Flesh sometimes is taken in Scripture Sensu morali or rather immorali corrupto in a moral or immoral and corrupt sense for the depraved Nature for the unregenerate Part in man As in Gal. 5. 17. The flesh lusteth against the spirit Rom. 7. 18. In my flesh there dwelleth no good thing So in Gal. 5. 19. The works of the flesh are manifest c. But this is not the meaning of it here Though this flesh shall fail and doth fail for in every regenerate Soul it is dying daily Sin in the Godly hath lost its Sword. So that it can't kill it hath lost its Scepter so that it can't rule and in a few days it shall lose its Being its Habitation and Residence The death of the Body shall be the destruction of the body of death Now sin is dying in them it hath received a deadly wound but then it shall breathe out its last and live no longer to be a Thorn in their Eyes or a Goad in their Sides to vex and disquiet their righteous Souls as now it doth from day to day Then this cursed Inmate shall be turned out of doors and Grace shall dwell alone in the Soul for ever This body of death is now under a Curse and then the Curse of the barren Fig-tree shall fall upon it and no fruit shall ever grow on it more But secondly Flesh is taken and to be understood sensu naturali physico in a natural and physical sense and thus we are to take it here For the fleshly part of man that fleshly substance that our bones are covered withal that fleshly Tabernacle in which the Soul of man doth dwell This flesh will fail Isa 40. 6 7. All flesh is grass and the goodliness thereof as the flower of the field the grass withereth and the flower fadeth so will the flesh All the goodliness of it its comeliness strength and beauty all will fail A blast will come upon all which will cause it to wither and decay which will turn it into rottenness and make it become like a Moth-eaten garment Job 13. 28. How beautiful soever you may now be in a few days your beauty shall be turned into deformity And how strong soever you at present be it will not be long but this flesh of yours will become so weak that it will not be able any longer to hold the spirit The Lord hath determined a Consumption to come upon all flesh Isa 28. 22. and he hath many ways and methods to bring it about As in Deut. 28. 21 22. Either by the pestilence or a fever or an inflammation or an extream burning or the sword c. How many hundred diseases and distempers are there up and down in the world effecting this determined consumption If God give any one of them a Commission to come to us and to effect the same as surely at one time or
slie to Jesus Christ by Faith and by his Resurrection are assured that God is reconciled and that our Peace is made our Debt is paid for otherwise he having been arrested and laid in the Prison of the Grave he had not risen again and come forth from thence if full satisfaction had not been given and thus we come to a lively hope that now we are upon good terms with God and that he is become our Father and will be the portion of our Souls for ever VSE I. Hence we may be informed That none are so rich as the people of God None so rich in possession none so rich in reversion Many of them seem to have nothing yet they possess all things None can tell how rich they are but they that can tell how rich God is for the riches of God are all theirs VSE II. Let the people of God make use of their portion is men do for the supply of those things they need they go to their portion and with that procure those necessaries and conveniences which they want Oh let the people of God go to their portion every day and make use of it for all they want for their Bodies or for their Souls for their inward and for their outward man for Time and for Eternity There are some men of the world that do not use their portion Eccles 6. ver 2. There is a man to whom God hath given Riches Wealth and Honour so that he wanteth nothing for his Soul of all that he desireth yet he hath not power to eat thereof By reason of inordinate Love distrustful Providence and the incumbrances of earthly imployments they hinder themselves of the injoyment of what they have and so they are Poor in the midst of their Riches and Beggars in the midst of their Abundance There is as it were a Spell set upon their Estates so that their Wealth says to them Touch not tast not handle not They are like the Dog in the wheel that toils all the day to Roast meat for others eating Truly many of Gods own people live exceedingly below their allowance they live as if they had nothing were worth nothing when they have a rich Portion they have it but they do not use it What comfort what joy what peace which passeth all understanding might they find in it if they would live by Faith upon it VSE III. Let all be exhorted to get this Portion What will you do when your Flesh and your Heart faileth if God be not your Portion What will you do when Death and Judgment comes if God be not your Portion Oh Death will be deadly to you if God be not your Portion Judgment will be terrible and amazing and you will be ready to cry to the Rocks to the Hills and Mountains to fall upon you and to hide you from the wrath of the Lamb that sits upon the Throne if God be not your Portion Oh get this portion I told you before that it is not procured by our indeavour we can't purchase it by all that we are able to do but this is procured by another there is a near Kinsman of ours that hath redeemed this morgaged or lost Inheritance that is Jesus Christ the right of Redemption did belong to him and he hath done the part of a Kinsman for us Now if we will come to him as poor miserable and undone Creatures and take this Inheritance thankfully out of his hands if we will receive it in his right and submit to his terms which are as reasonable as can be desired then this Inheritance is our own and God will become our Portion again Oh get this Portion or you get nothing get this Portion and you get all this Portion will make you happy in Life and Death If God be your Portion if your Possessions are lower he will heighten the Fruition He can croud in abundance of comfort in a little of the Creature He can make a single Dish out-vye a Feast and the meanest fare suppose a Dinner of green Herbs to be sweeter and better than a stalled Ox. With God a small Stock will be more comfortable and satisfying than a large Revenue Or if he susser us to be bereaved of all he himself will be instead of all He hath taken to himself the names of all things needful and comfortable to intimate to us that he alone stands for all they signify or are worth Therefore he is called a Portion an Inheritance an Habitation high Tower Shade Strength Deliverer Friend Father Husband c. To let us know that all these are nothing without him and that he can be all without these Without this portion when you come to die not Angels but Devils will receive your Souls and eternity will not be the measure of your joys but of your woes Oh think of your dying day and how near you may be to that day and be awakened to make sure of this portion Death is riding its Circuit up and down every day it will not be long but it will come to us it will come with its Sythe and Mow us down it will come and take down the Glass and stop our breath and tell us that we have lived our last Oh then make sure of this portion and he will be your God in Life in Death and after Death to all Eternity Make sure of this portion or you will have the wicked mans portion Psal 11. 6. Vpon the wicked he shall rain snares fire and brimstone and an horrible tempest this shall be the portion of their cup. 3. God is their everlasting portion A portion that they shall never leave a portion that they shall never lose For we must have a better and a more induring substance than can be had and injoyed here we shall outlive all these things A portion in this world will not serve our turns because we are hastning away out of this world into an everlasting state and therefore must get an everlasting portion Alas A month may devour us and all our portion that we have here Hos 5. 7. yea a week a day a night may devour all but the Godly mans portion is everlasting God saith the Psalmist in the Text is my portion for ever There 's nothing but God that suits the Souls nature nothing but God that can fill the Souls Capacities nothing but God that can equal the Souls duration Here is a Portion indeed that is Coaetaneous with the immortal Soul of man. As for all the perfection that is here below we shall soon see an end of it As David said I have seen an end of all perfection Psal 119. 96. he speaks not of every kind of perfection but of all the perfections of one kind as for divine perfections and injoyments they have no end therefore an end of them cannot be seen but all humane perfections and injoyments they must and will end By the sight of his eye he had seen an end of many humane perfections and by the sight of his mind he had seen an end of them all some he had seen already ending and he saw of necessity that all must end But the Godly man hath an everlasting Portion a Portion that shall survive all the Vicissitudes and changes of time in fatal period shall ever come to put an end to their injoyment of this Portion to denude or rob them of this precious treasure To the enjoyment of this blessed and everlasting Portion our Friend whose death was the occasion of this discourse is gone and now all tears are wiped from her eyes and she is bathing her self in those rivers of pleasures that are at Gods right hand for evermore Tho' she be dead she yet speaketh she speaketh to her yoak-fellow and children that she hath left behind to live godly righteously and soberly in this present world as she did to mind their precious and immortal Souls to provide for Eterity and to lay a good foundation against the time to come 〈◊〉 she did She speaks to us all to be followers of them 〈◊〉 through Faith and patience inherit the Kingdom Such a one she was under her long affliction though she di● groan she never grumbled though she mourned 〈◊〉 she never murmured her earnest desire was rather to be●● her affliction sanctified to her than removed from 〈◊〉 As to life or death she left it wholly to Gods choice chusing infinitely rather to be at his dispose than her own I verily believe that if life and death had been put in a Pair of Balances she would not willingly have 〈◊〉 in one dram to turn the Balance any way The Kingdom of Heaven had already entred into her and she had a longing desire if her time was come and her work done to enter into it FINIS Haec tria pro trino numine mundus habet John 10. 18. Prov. 1. 32. Psalm 84. 10. Psalm 122. 1 Mal. 3. 13.